Scientists make cheese using bacteria from human bodies

This cheese was made with bacteria from writer Michael Pollan’s belly button. (Christina Agapakis/via YouTube)

You know Monterey Jack, mozzarella and feta, but have you ever heard of human cheese?

Scientists have created a collection of cheeses using bacteria from the feet, mouths and belly buttons of artists, writers and even cheesemakers.

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The 11 funky cheeses are part of biologist Christina Agapakis and scent expert Sissel Tolaas' "Selfmade" project, which is part of the "Grow Your Own" exhibition at the Science Gallery in Dublin.

"Everybody has a unique and diverse set of bacteria living on their skin that can be amplified using techniques from microbiology and grown directly in milk to form and flavor each cheese," Agapakis told Dezeen magazine.

Each cheese supposedly smells and tastes like the body odor of the person who donated the bacteria.

While the sheer thought of the project may make you nauseous, you can take comfort in the fact that you don't worry about finding a hunk of cheese made from microbiologist Ben Wolfe's toe microbes in your salad.

"This isn't cheese for eating. This is cheese for thinking," Agapakis said in a talk at PopTech 2013 about "Selfmade."

Agapakis and Tolaas explain in their artist statement that "many of the stinkiest cheeses are hosts to species of bacteria closely related to the bacteria responsible for the characteristic smells of human armpits or feet."

The bacterial cultures from people were used to make the cheese. (Christina Agapakis/via YouTube)

Agapakis told Dezeen she hopes the exhibition will spark conversations about human bacteria.

"By making cheese directly from the microbes on the body, we want to highlight these bacterial connections as well as to question and potentially expand the role of both odors and microbes in our lives," she said.